I just found a draft email in my Hotmail account that I was going to send to the SJML back in 2005!

Big Mac wrote:Improved Spelljamming [General]

Choose one spelljamming ship hull type, such as hammership. You can spelljam this ship especially fast during ship to ship combat.

Prerequisits: Spacefarer, Spellcaster level 1st+.

Benefit: When spelljamming the selected ship at tactical speed, you add a +1 bonus to its ships raiting. Note: This bonus is not granted when using helms, like lifejammers, that do not work using your spellcasting energy.

Normal: The ships raiting is dependent solely on the type of helm fitted on the ship and your spellcasting level.

Special: You may gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take this feat it applies to a different ship hull type.

Feedback on this would be appreciated.

I'm not sure if "Spellcaster level 1st+" is the correct way to word this. Looking back (10 years) I'm thinking it looks a bit ham fisted.

Big Mac wrote:You can not take 10 during a situation where you are threatened. And ships only drop to tactical speed when there is an encounter with a nearby object.

That's extending it unnecessarily, IMHO.
If someone takes a swing at the pilot, or the pilot tries to shoot a swivel-gun while driving, then no take-10. Or while jinking in combat.
On a straight pursuit course or approaching the dock - why not?
When the ship is actually taking a hit, the 'jammer will also have to make those Concentration checks, of course. When not... a green pilot may flinch, but having this skill in the first place generally means that one isn't green.

Big Mac wrote:You can not take 10 during a situation where you are threatened. And ships only drop to tactical speed when there is an encounter with a nearby object.

That's extending it unnecessarily, IMHO.
If someone takes a swing at the pilot, or the pilot tries to shoot a swivel-gun while driving, then no take-10. Or while jinking in combat.
On a straight pursuit course or approaching the dock - why not?
When the ship is actually taking a hit, the 'jammer will also have to make those Concentration checks, of course. When not... a green pilot may flinch, but having this skill in the first place generally means that one isn't green.

Fair point.

I guess that whatever applies to the Ride skill (with respect to being able to take 10) might also also apply to spelljamming. That doesn't say anything is different from the standard rules for Taking 10:

Using Skills at The Hypertext d20 SRD wrote:Taking 10

When your character is not being threatened or distracted, you may choose to take 10. Instead of rolling 1d20 for the skill check, calculate your result as if you had rolled a 10. For many routine tasks, taking 10 makes them automatically successful. Distractions or threats (such as combat) make it impossible for a character to take 10. In most cases, taking 10 is purely a safety measure —you know (or expect) that an average roll will succeed but fear that a poor roll might fail, so you elect to settle for the average roll (a 10). Taking 10 is especially useful in situations where a particularly high roll wouldn’t help.

So it is not just "threats". It is also "distractions".

Different GMs may want to make different rulings on this. I don't think this is something that needs to be discussed in the writeup for a feat. People can make their own call on it.

Thinking about this some more, I think that "Improved Spelljamming" should be a generic thing, while a Feat that is specific to an individual hull type should be called something like "Ship Focus" or "Ship Specialisation" (with the possibility that "Ship Specialisation is reserved for something like a "Helmsman Prestige Class").